Uncle Derek
by SabbyStarlight
Summary: This is technically a follow-up to my previous story Isn't She Lovely, but it can easily be read alone. Slightly inspired by my niece spending the weekend with me. Stiles and Lydia's little girl spends the night with her Uncle Derek.


The clock on Derek's nightstand read 3:12 when he felt the little hands pull the blanket from his face. "Uncle Der, wake up! Wake up!" She laughed, bouncing on his bed. It was WAY too early to be that awake, let alone to be happy about it. "Cars..." he groaned, reaching his arms out from under the warmth of his blanket and wrapping them around the little girl, pulling her under the covers and tugging them around them both. "Cars, why are you awake? At three a.m.?"

"Mommy said you're not allowed to call me that." Her little voice answered him through the dark. "My name is Clawdia Allison Rain Stilinski. Not Cars." She poked him in the chest with her finger to emphasize her point. "Claudia Allison Rain Stilinski." Derek repeated, still half asleep. "C-A-R-S. Ya know what that spells, kiddo?"

"It spells cars. But that's my initials, not my name. " She answered him smugly, pressing her face against his grey t-shirt. "Daddy says I'm smart like Mommy."

"Apparently not smart enough," He teased, tugging on her red braid. "You just woke up a big scary werewolf when he was trying to sleep. That wasn't a very smart thing to do, now was it?"

"You're not scary, Uncle Der!" She giggled, as if the idea of him being a monster was the funniest thing her little four year old mind had ever heard. "You're like a big cuddly teddy bear. Just with glowy eyes and claws and teeth and stuff."

Derek rolled his eyes behind his closed lids. "And you are SO much like your father." He told her, failing to hide the smile on his face. "I'm gonna try again. Is there a reason you woke me up at three a.m. giggling and messing up my bed? Or was it just to insult me?"

"I didn't insulate you!" She insisted. "I like teddy bears! And you are cuddly." She wrapped her little arms as far around his broad chest as they would go to prove her point. "But I woke you up cause I'm hungry."

"Cars. You can't be hungry. We ate dinner like," He glanced over in the direction of the clock, cracking open one eyelid to see. "Eight hours ago. Remember? I made lasagna? And that bread you like? And then I'm pretty sure you ate three bags of popcorn while we watched The Little Mermaid."

"Nuh-uh!" She insisted, "I only had two!" She sat up, letting a draft of cold air under the blankets and holding out two fingers, one for each bag of popcorn.

"So sorry." Derek mumbled. "Only two. You still can't be hungry."

"Well I am!" She insisted. "And Mommy says she likes it when I stay with you instead of Uncle Scotty cause you feed me better food. All he can make is those Roman noodle things. And McDonalds."

"Ramen noodles, not Roman." Derek corrected her.

"Whatever. They're still gooey. Daddy says that makes them awesome cause they stick to the wall if you throw them at it but Mommy won't let me try."

"Cars. Bed. Sleep. Now." The order probably would have been a lot more convincing had Derek not yawned at the end. His goddaughter responded by promptly flipping on the lamp on the bedside table.

"Ungh!"

"Uncle Der! I'm SO hungry." Derek knew that if he braved the blinding light to open his eyes he would see the little girl, arms crossed and pouty face, staring back at him with those whiskey colored eyes he could never say no to. So he chose not to look at her. Rolling over and burying his head under the pillow. "There's leftover lasagna in the fridge. Help yourself. Goodnight."

"It's not not night, it's morning!" She pointed to the clock.

"Not yet it isn't." Derek mumbled from under the pillow.

"Yeah huh! See! It says 'a.m.' and that means ante meridian. which is daytime. 'P.m.' means post meridiem and that's night."

"What four year old kid knows that?" Derek whispered to himself.

Claudia tried another tactic. "The sky's awake, so I'M awake." She announced dramatically, throwing herself theatrically across the bed, elbow hitting him in the ribcage.

"Don't you quote Frozen at me, Kiddo. And the sky is not awake. Nobody is awake. Nothing is awake. Go back to sleep."

"Pwetty pwease?"

Those two words cut clear through the mound of pillows and blankets covering Derek and straight through to his heart. There was no way he could say no to that. Sighing, he pushed aside the bedding and braced himself for the momentary blindness caused by the lamplight.

"Alright, Cars." He sighed. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Pancakes!" She cheered, taking six bounding leaps across the bed before landing with all the grace of her father in a pile on the floor.

So Derek forced himself out of bed, trailing behind the little girl, into the kitchen where she immediately flipped on the lights and opened the refrigerator door.

"What do we need?" She asked.

Derek fought back a simultaneous yawn and smile as he searched the cabinets for a mixing bowl. "Eggs-carefully. And milk." He recited off the rest of the ingredients that she could easily reach, letting her feel important even though it took twice as long. When it came time to stir the batter he lifted her up and sat her on the countertop to help. She stayed there the whole time he carefully spooned out ladles of batter onto the griddle and watched him expertly turn the bowl of goo into an entire stack of golden, fluffy pancakes

"Alright," He said, carrying two plates and the platter of pancakes to the table, "Maple syrup or..."

"Nutella!" She interrupted him, running back into the kitchen and grabbing the brown tub. "And strawberries." Cause that's your favorite so it's my favorite too."

So they sat down at the dining room table, at a little after four in the morning in their pajamas, and ate the stack of pancakes covered in Nutella and strawberries. Like most meals shared with a Stilinski, Claudia talked the entire time, only needing an occasional nod or hum of agreement from Derek to keep the conversation going. Once the pile of pancakes was significantly smaller, Claudia pushed her chair away from the table with a yawn.

"I'm sleepy now, Uncle Der." She told him.

"Of course you are. You drag me out of my nice warm bed to make you pancakes before dawn and then you want to go back to bed once there is a huge mess to clean up." He tried to act frustrated but even though he would never admit it, he wouldn't trade these moments for anything.

Derek sighed. "Go grab a blanket and head to the couch. I'll be there after I put the dishes in the dishwasher."

"Otay!" She skipped in the direction of his bedroom where Derek knew she would drag every blanket off his bed and have them all waiting in a big pile on the couch.

Once the kitchen was relatively clean he made his way to the living room, where sure enough there was a mound of blankets and pillows taller than the four year old sitting beside them. "I put in The Lion King. Daddy says that sometimes boys get tired of watching princess movies over and over again. I don't know why though. They're the bestest."

He picked up the little girl and sat down sideways on the couch, legs stretched out, Claudia on his lap, and pulled the blankets over them as she pressed play on the dvd remote. She snuggled down into the warmth of Derek's chest and the mound of covers and attentively watched the movie while Derek absentmindedly flaked a spot of dried pancake batter off her pajama top's shoulder. She was asleep within minutes, Derek following soon after.

Two and a half hours later he was woken for the second time that morning. This time by Stiles and Lydia coming down the hallway outside his loft. His goddaughter still fast asleep, softly snoring on his chest, the title screen of The Lion King repeating over and over. Knowing that Stiles would use his own key to the door to unlock it and let himself in, Derek didn't move from his spot on the sofa, enjoying every second he could with the little girl.


End file.
